NCSoft is expanding service operations and technical cooperation with Microsoft ahead of the global launch of 'Aion 2' on Oct. 5.

NCSoft said on Monday it is strengthening cooperation with Microsoft Korea for the global service of Aion 2.

The two companies met on Sept. 14 at NCSoft's R&D center in Seongnam, south of Seoul, to discuss preparations for the global launch and service operations plans. Attendees included Baek Seung-wook, NCSoft chief business officer, and Jo Won-woo, head of Microsoft Korea.

The key focus of the cooperation is to respond to large-scale access and traffic changes by region that could occur during a simultaneous global launch. NCSoft plans to use the global infrastructure of Microsoft's cloud service Azure for operating Aion 2 services.

Microsoft will provide support from pre-launch performance verification through incident response after official service begins. It will deploy a global technical organization together with a dedicated Korea team to support operational stability, and it also plans joint marketing with its global gaming organization in the future.

The scope of cooperation is also expanding beyond game infrastructure. NCSoft has introduced Microsoft 365 E5 into its companywide work environment and is also reviewing ways to use Microsoft 365 Copilot for employee work.

Baek Seung-wook, NCSoft CBO, said, "Microsoft is a key partner that joins NCSoft in its global challenge." He added, "We will prepare the global launch of Aion 2 based on Azure and use this cooperation as an opportunity to raise our global game competitiveness."

Jo Won-woo, head of Microsoft Korea, said, "We will support NCSoft's service operations based on Microsoft's cloud capabilities and engineering expertise." He added, "We will cooperate so that we can provide a stable gaming experience to users around the world."